What really needs fixing

I am at the car dealership and I am waiting for them to fix my brakes. You know it's time to get your brakes checked when those brake lights stay on when they are supposed to be off.

Simple.

Many other car owners are here. We are all responding to various signs and symptoms we see on our dashboards. Many of us have not even seen any symptoms of something going or gone wrong - we just know it's time to service the vehicle.

Wish our bodies were treated like this all the time. Guess we're more afraid that the vehicle may leave us on the road MORE than that we might leave both the vehicle and the road. How many symptoms have we neglected over the past year?

We see it on the "dashboard" of our bathroom scales every day - 20, 30, 50 lbs overweight, and more! We keep driving.

Bulging at the mid-section, clothes don't fit anymore even though we are not getting any taller - the mirror is a big dashboard that doesn't lie. Yet some of us ignore the warning signs all the time.

Why do some of us take more care of our cars than our bodies?

My doctor said she's "happy" for me

She is not the one who "threatened" to put me on insulin. This is the other doctor that's been treating me for the past (almost) 1½ years. She just called me 30 minutes ago.

If you have diabetes, please find a doctor like my doctor. She will tell you that you need to eat right, exercise, and go to bed early every night. She will give you medication ONLY if you need it - and only if those three important practices don't work.

Now, many people "need" the medication because they don't go all the way to having and maintaining a proper diet, they are not consistent in exercising, and they can't go to bed early for various reasons - especially when their favorite TV program is airing. Well, they will really need the medication, for as long as the habit lasts.

When we develop diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other similar conditions our bodies need "regularity". A regular schedule of meal times and sleep time puts us back in sync with our natural biorhythms. This promotes healing and restoration. Anyway...

Thanks doc, you have at least one happy patient.

It Works! Do You A1c My Point?

I just got my results from my medical check last week. From past experience, I know that if I don't get a call from my doctor's office within a couple days after the tests, then there is nothing "unusual" in the results. It has been over a week. Today the mailman delivered.

It was a pleasure reading my medical results again:
- A1c (5.3%),
- total cholesterol (143 mg/dL),
- triglicerides (51 mg/dL),
- LDL (85 mg/dL), and more...
- Liver and kidney functions normal. Hey, I feel like drinking...

Water is the only drink I have had since November 2004. (Note: I've never had alcohol in my life, and I still can't understand why one would drink it rather than put it on a wound.) This week I tried cranberry juice (unsweetened) because I felt so good and had not had a high glucose reading for "I-can't-recall". For more than a year and holding, my A1c is 5.3% without even the "look" at a drug. No one can tell me that a diet and lifestyle changes don't work.

These four principles that I've shared on my website do work (in combination, of course).

• Regular exercise - daily 1-hour walks at first, now it 30 minutes strength training, aerobics, or flexibility training
• Proper diet - the more "vegan" the better. Don't ingest cholesterol or animal products if you don't have to. Who "must" anyway?
• Quality sleep - this is not after midnight sleep. Sleep early (latest 10 pm). Explanation here.
• Food supplementation - only because when the body has already succumbed to conditions like type 2 diabetes, we really need "extra" help. I haven't tried a lot of supplements - only two; one of which (a seaweed supplement) I still take daily - the other I no longer need.

Today, I'm more motivated than ever. I feel I'm blessed, and who can blame me for that? Anyway, take care, and remember the four keys I've shared. When you implement these, you really lose something - your diabetes medication (most likely). I remain convinced that health is a choice.